This invention generally relates to conditioning of atmospheric air and, particularly to a process and apparatus for conditioning atmospheric sea air for use in floating chemical processing plants.
Employing chemical processing plants on floating platforms at off-shore natural gas and oil fields for processing raw gas and oil materials into semi-finished and/or finished products, has created numerous problems. One problem is that the intake air must be taken from the immediate vicinity of the floating platform because an extremely high intake stack unfavorably influences the stability of the floating platform. Another problem is that the salt content of sea air is relatively high and air temperatures of less than 0.degree. C. are frequently encountered during winter seasons.
Although purification of atmospheric sea air in wash towers or in separation and filter plants has been successfully employed in the past, such processes have large space requirements and result in considerable pressure losses on the intake side of the plants.